LATAM POLITICS TODAY-Paraguay president to make high-stakes trip to Taiwan

Stella told reporters the Vatican had raised the topic of a potential amnesty for prisoners on multiple occasions. Stella's comments come as Cuba faces sharp criticism from rights groups, the United States and the European Union following the imprisonment of hundreds of protesters after the July 11, 2021, riots, the largest since former Cuban leader Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.

The latest in Latin American politics today: Paraguay president to visit Taiwan ahead of election that could end ties

TAIPEI - Paraguay's president, Mario Abdo, will visit Taiwan as the island seeks to shore up ties with one of its oldest allies ahead of an election in April that could see the Latin American country ditch Taipei in favour of Beijing. Paraguay is one of only 14 countries to have formal diplomatic relations with Chinese-claimed Taiwan, and Beijing has been stepping up efforts to get those remaining allies to abandon Taipei.

Paraguay would cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan and open relations with China if the opposition wins the election, its presidential candidate Efrain Alegre has said, hoping to boost economically important soy and beef exports. Nicaragua court sentences media workers to decade behind bars

MANAGUA - A judge in Nicaragua sentenced two employees of a newspaper critical of the president to a decade in prison, in what human rights activists called the latest attack on the free press by the government. The two employees were drivers for the newspaper "La Prensa," which had its offices seized by police in 2021. The owner, Juan Lorenzo Hollman, is under investigation for customs fraud and money laundering.

The paper's remaining reporters went into exile after the drivers were arrested, continuing to publish online. According to the organization Independent Journalists and Communicators of Nicaragua, more than 100 journalists have gone into exile since Nicaragua's political crisis began in 2018. UK trade minister visits Mexico, targeting new deals

LONDON - Britain's trade minister Kemi Badenoch is set to visit Mexico, targeting a bilateral trade deal as well as Britain's accession to a Pacific trading association as the country builds its trade ties after leaving the European Union. Britain is targeting an Indo-Pacific tilt in its foreign and trade policy, and is aiming to accede to the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), of which Mexico is already a member.

Last May, Britain and Mexico also launched talks over a bilateral free trade deal, looking to add services to its current agreement. Vatican envoy says prisoner amnesty in Cuba 'on table'

HAVANA - Papal envoy and cardinal Benjamin Stella said in Havana a potential amnesty for prisoners jailed in Cuba following anti-government protests in July 2021 was "on the table" but that the response did not depend on the Roman Catholic Church. Stella told reporters the Vatican had raised the topic of a potential amnesty for prisoners on multiple occasions.

Stella's comments come as Cuba faces sharp criticism from rights groups, the United States and the European Union following the imprisonment of hundreds of protesters after the July 11, 2021, riots, the largest since former Cuban leader Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution. The Vatican played a key role in brokering a historic resumption of ties between Cuba and the United States in 2016 under then-U.S. President Barack Obama.

France minister visits Brazil's Lula amid push for better ties post-Bolsonaro BRASILIA - France's foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, met with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in a visit resetting relations following a feud between the two countries' presidents in 2019.

It was the first French ministerial visit to Brazil since 2019 when Lula's far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, angered by President Emmanuel Macron's criticism of his handling of forest fires in the Amazon, mocked the French leader's wife on Facebook. (Compiled by Steven Grattan, Brendan O'Boyle and Kylie Madry; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

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